If you want to donate your own laptop, consider joining others in donating to a local school or group where kids can learn together, in a well-supported environment. Cities are strongly encouraged to initiate their own regional community groups.

Direct-to-OLPC-Support Laptop Donations

Direct-to-OLPC-Support Laptop Donations should be sent to:

OLPC Volunteers
PO BOX 300
Hanover, NH 03755

OLPC Volunteers (with the help of http://unleashkids.org) run the Contributors Program. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contributors_program volunteer Adam Holt directs the Contributors Program with the assistance of Nancie Severs and others. As volunteers we are very proud of our record, working for 5+ years to collect XO laptops for OLPC, to repair, refurbish, clean and redistribute them in small quantities to seed projects with a good likelihood of success. We re-distribute every XO that is donated to a child, teacher, or software/curriculum/community developer, somewhere in the world. If you have questions, don't hesitate to write us below!

FAQ for Direct-to-OLPC Laptop Donations

Q: Can I use the Post Office, Fedex, or UPS etc?
curri
A: Please use the USPS or any carrier/shipper that will deliver to a USPS Post Office Box. If you prefer to use a shipper/carrier; e.g., UPS or FedEx, that requires a residential or business address, please contact contributors@unleashkids.org
to obtain a physical address.

A: Unfortunately no receipts are possible due to legal reasons. On a personal level, we very strongly appreciate your gift, as will the recipient.

Q: Are broken OLPC laptops being accepted?

A: Yes. 9 out of 10 'broken' laptops can be fixed with the right part or update in 15 minutes. Many XOs that have been stored unused will not turn on (boot) when the power button is pressed. This happens in some XOs when the clock battery in the motherboard discharges completely and needs resetting. It's an easy repair for us to do as we have the equipment and know how. Broken keyboards and screens can be replaced. Damaged XOs are often useful for spare parts. Please don't throw your XOs away...send them to us!

A: No. We apologize, but this effort is completely volunteer driven and we have no budget for shipping or other costs. Do check the projects below as some may assist with re-donation costs.

OLPC for Haiti

OLPC volunteers are still gathering XOs to support Haitian children and teachers, in coordination with the Haitian OLPC team.

To Donate Your Get One for Haiti, please send your XO to:

OLPC for Haiti
c/o OLPC Volunteers
PO Box 300
Hanover, NH 03755

The Bahamas

We are trying to start a new group here in The Bahamas. We want to bring education into the future for our small country. Please help by donating. Email me at westvilla@hotmail.com if you want to help.

Africa

Zambia, Southern Africa

The Lubuto Library Project (http://www.lubuto.org/) builds beautiful, indigenously-styled open-access libraries that serve street children and other vulnerable and out-of-school children in sub-Saharan African countries, starting in Zambia. The libraries, owned and run by Zambians, offer a wide array of programs, including mentoring and use of OLPC XO laptops, that provide the children with a bridge to schools and social services that are beyond the reach
We successfully introduced 10 XO’s at the first Lubuto Library, in Lusaka, Zambia, in February, 2009, and they have been in almost constant use ever since: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwYI9w5BGc We are now completing our second library, in another part of Lusaka where there are many street children needing services, and we would like to provide as many of the XO laptops as we can get. The former street children who work with our libraries are adept in training, and we can assure you that the laptops will be heavily used and appreciated for as long as they last by some of the most vulnerable children on the planet.

São Tomé e Príncipe

Great news! STEP UP OLPC has just begun its second successful academic year with 120 XO laptops (total) and a new batch of eager-eyed kids!

In the summer of 2009, the São João Middle School in São Tomé e Príncipe received 100 laptops through OLPC and began giving computer classes to its 6th grade students. The class took off with a bang, igniting interest not only within the classroom but across the entire country. It also nearly instantly began to develop the problem solving, creativity and research skills of 100 very bright and disadvantaged children.

Unfortunately, there are still 500 students in the 6th grade lacking computers. This severe lack makes it absolutely impossible for students to use their computers in they way they were intended- during the school day. Students are currently meeting every Saturday morning to participate in extra computer classes until we can gather enough to include the rest of the 6th grade. Please consider donating your used and previously loved XO laptop in order to help us attain enough computers and make our program a success.

Please email Beth at beth@bethsantos.com for more information or visit our blog at http://stepupolpc.bethsantos.com. You can also find pictures and class summaries up on our blog, as well as more information about the São João School and São Tomé e Príncipe. Laptops may be sent directly to 1771 New River Inlet Rd. Unit 5, North Topsail Beach, NC 28460. Donations are tax-deductible.

Kenya, East Africa

The Community Alliance Network (CAN) is an NGO working in Kenya. Having sponsored four teachers at a rural school to take computer literacy courses, we are looking to supply the class with enough computers to run a computer literacy class. As these would remain at the school, your donation would help many generations of high school students to gain access to skills which are empowering and will grow ever more so in the 21st century. For information, contact santiagopm88@gmail.com

Western Kenya Kericho District Project

HOC Team Member at Work

The Hands of Charity teams are working with schools in Kericho and Bungoma to develop curriculum based on the Kenyan State Syllabus. These schools lack basic resources. The HOC teams have been working since August and are now in the schools working with students. They are teaching an HIV/AIDS curriculum, primary reading and writing and a mathematics curriculum. Please visit their blog at http://hoclaptop.blog.com HOC Project Blog

Small Solutions based in Newburyport, Massachusetts is partnering with HOC and assisting by fundraising for the outreach and support of these teams. To donate a laptop to children in the school Keongo Primary School please email sandra@smallsolutionsbigideas.org or visit our website www.smallsolutionsbigideas.org SmallSolutions Big Ideas. Your donation is tax deductible.

Tanzania, Arusha

Double Orphan Youth a Ngaratomi Orphan Center outside Arusha

Consider donating a laptop that will go directly to an orphan identified as as a child that will benefit the most from your donation.

The Reconciliation Ministry based in Arusha supports orphanages in the countryside around Arusha and up on Mr. Meru. Small Solutions based in Newburyport, Massachusetts has partnered with the 'Reconciliation Ministry' and visited their orphanages last summer to identify projects for the XO.

To donate a laptop to one of the more than 300 orphans in 3 orphan centers around Arusha or to donate to orphanages in Moshi please email sandra@smallsolutionsbigideas.org or go to www.smallsolutionsbigideas.org [1]. Your donation is tax deductible.

Ghana, West Africa

Boys Fascinated with XO in Children's Home, Axim, Ghana

Ghana Together is a 501c3 working with our Ghanaian partner, Western Heritage Home (WHH) in Axim, Ghana. WHH is Ghanaian registered, and run entirely by local leaders---the only local NGO in the town of about 25,000.

In January '09 we put out a plea and now have 44 donated working OLPCs deployed in the Western Heritage Home facility. Each resident child has his/her own. After about two years of use, they are totally familiar with their machines. Interestingly, almost all of them are still working.

WHH has set up an "OLPC Room" in their facility. Since financially there is little hope of schools acquiring their own computers at this point, students from nearby schools come and learn beginning ICT, use the various activities, and also connect to the internet. This is not as good as each child having one personally, perhaps, but for sub-Sahara Africa, this is a wonderful development.

We are proud that we have introduced OLPCs into the Western Region of Ghana, especially the Nzema East District. The older children are now very skilled and have been able to "teach" visiting educationists and other leaders---a wonderful opportunity for them and a chance for local Ghanaians to see for themselves what OLPCs are all about. We invite Ghanaians who may be reading this to go to Axim and see for themselves!

These are the children and Axim is the environment for whom the OLPC was designed--hot, humid, difficult rainy season, bright sunlight, teacher+blackboard education, few books, few learning resources, isolated, very poor economically...BUT a democracy, strong desire to improve education, reasonably stable society, strong cultural traditions, acceptance of computer technology.

I myself introduced the OLPCs to the community. A recent wonderful development is that one of the primary schools acquired 30 from the government of Ghana. I have helped to train several older students and the teacher at his primary school. He is spreading the word to other teachers, including an Industrial Technologist doing National Service as a teacher and who is learning how to do repairs, etc. It's catching on rapidly, and Axim is READY for this development.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR MORE DONATED OLPCs. If you have "outgrown" yours, and it is in working condition, with power cord and preferably a battery, consider donating it to us (as a bonus, it's a tax deductible charitable contribution). We do a clean rebuild, update to the latest version of Sugar and activities. This "community volunteer" program is useful in itself, but it also gives authorities a chance to evaluate the OLPC for expansion into their schools. We are operating as a "pilot program", one might say.

NACIF, Ghana

The Needy African Child Foundation is a non-profit organization in Ghana with a focus on facilitating the education of girls. NACIF’s work is based on the age-old philosophy, “Educate a girl to educate a nation.” To this end, it tries to be an educational resource for female students and drop-outs in Ghana.

The original goal of this particular project was to provide young female students (ages 8-16) who had to drop out of school because of lack of funds, unintended pregnancies, etc, with books that will enable them to further their education and make a living. However, the cost of shipping books for the project proved to be prohibitively expensive. NACIF believes e-books and e-learning websites are a cost-effective solution to the problem. In addition, NACIF realizes that these girls need computer skills to be competitive in today’s employment market.

NACIF’s plan is to have a computer resource person work with the girls in the program to define projects for which they can borrow an OLPC. The girls will be able to research their project using resources such as Wikipedia, OER and MIT OCW. They will also be encouraged to document their project to a Wiki, thereby making it possible for future participants in the program to benefit from a knowledge base. Although, it is hoped that the girls will benefit from the joy of having access to the world’s knowledge through the OLPC, a major metric of success will be the extent to which they can use this device to acquire employable skills.

Dadaab, Kenya refugee camp

Dadaab, Kenya, is home to over 160,000 refugees mostly from Somalia. The camps are the site of a growing humanitarian crisis — first from a sharp increase in the number of new refugees arriving from Somalia, and most recently from disastrous flooding in the area. With all other problems that these refugees face, the eduction for the children is minimal. We appealing for support for these refugee kids to benefit from such things as XO computers. Please contact me at ahmedafarah@gmail.com to the work together to help even a few number of these kids to have a better day.

Ketane, Lesotho, southern Africa

Ketane is a very isolated community in the mountains of Lesotho which has been devasted by a 30% HIV/AIDS infection rate. Many children have been orphaned, and most of the children have to deal with severe poverty. We have started a small computer school, with just two Windows OS computers powered by a small solar system, for adults and secondary school students. The Ha Nohana Primary School has 2 XO laptops donated by Get One owners in 2009, and they have asked for more. There is a great deal of community support for bringing more computers into the community with the hope that teaching the children critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and connecting them to the world outside their community, using the XO laptops will eventually help improve the quality of life for the whole community. You can see more details about Ketane and our computer project at Ketane, Lesotho. Contact me at janissa@silverstar.com to donate your XO laptop to the children of Ketane. Thanks!

Swaziland

We are a team of teachers working to help orphans in Swaziland improve basic literacy skills and learn English. Please consider donating an XO laptop for one of our orphans to use. Their teachers are coming to visit us in January and we hope to collect one laptop per child in the future. Visit teachersusan.com/computersforchildren.htm to read more about our project. Email me if you want to help: sr722@cabrini.edu

Asia

Philippines

eKindling.org, which is short for Education Kindling,is the result of our collaborative attempt to formalize an organization in the eKindling that will allow us to further our common mission and vision as a community. Simply said, this is an education project.

Having been conceived through the "OLPC process," eKindling is supportive of current XO-related initiatives. Projects, partnerships and volunteer efforts will continue to be encouraged.

We work with XO laptop projects in SE Asia. We are hoping to mentor projects and distribute used XO laptops in Myanmar soon. Every child who receives one of our XOs has a real chance at a better future. The children and their teachers thank you for your generosity!

Vietnam/Saigon

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is a very large city with more than 9 mln people living in the metropolitan area. Vietnam is making its way to a better economy, but there are still a lot of challenges families cope with. Education is a very big problem in Vietnam, as only primary education is free, but everything beyond that is expensive. Very few parents can afford education for their children.
For those unfortunate who do not have families and means to education, there is not much to choose from. They either go to the Pagoda (temple)to become monks (only boys) or end up in the orphanages and shelters and never get educated to their full potential.
This project is about bringing XOs to children who do not have families as they live in shelters. We currently have only 5 XOs, but need 8 in total. Please check out our blog at [4]

Central and South America

Los Tocones de las Galeras de Semaná, the Dominican Republic

This small town doesn't have much to rely on, except you

A small village near la Playa Rincόnin the Dominican Republic, Los Tocones is a town that has been very fortunate to have one rich family in it that has provided it with contacts in the US. In the past year, we have built a library in the school and are now collecting baseball equipment to take down in mid-February. Benji Smith plans to take as many XOs as he can for his Eagle Project. More information can be found here.

You can also contact Benji at his email address for more information and to donate,
<benji5smith@gmail.com>

The Caribbean

Children in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, with their Waveplace XOs

Waveplace is a non-profit that donates laptops to Caribbean children, creates training materials that teach digital media skills, and inspires teachers to use computers in new ways. We've given more than 400 laptops to children in Haiti, Nicaragua, Immokalee, and the Virgin Islands.

Please contact us through our website or send to the address below. We can use all the help we can get!

Waveplace is continuing our expanded work in Haiti this year. Please donate your XOs to the following address:

Waveplace Foundation Inc.
1838 Alder Lane
Bethlehem PA 18015

Belize

We are in much need of providing technology to students in Belize and are looking at working with schools around the nation to find the most needing and deserving students for these machines. We will be working closely with the schools to develop programs for their computer classes as well as provide support as it becomes needed.

We are looking to start with a minimum of 100 laptops. Your help is greatly needed.

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Children from Casa Guatemala with the volunteers

Casa Guatemala is a home for orphaned, abandoned, or abused children, located on the banks of the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. The orphanage provides education to over 250 children with the help of volunteers from around the world. These children would greatly benefit from the OLPC project.

For more information about Casa Guatemala, visit the Casa Guatemala website or contact us on administracion@casa-guatemala.org.

North America

Oaxaca, Mexico

A tiny village in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, San Miguel Cuevas, is looking for donations. The village is an indigenous Mixtec community with contacts living in the United States that visit often, and can take the donations down themselves. For more information please contact Donna Slepack <dslepack@comcast.net>.

United States

The Aspirnaut Initiative, a pilot program created to promote math and science education, takes advantage of time on long bus rides in rural school districts. The program could put your XO to good use. Students travel on buses connected to the Internet using cellular technology and are issued XOs and MacBooks (XOs for the younger children) on which they take online courses and engage in other online math and science activities. Started by Billy Hudson, PhD, a research biologist at Vanderbilt University, who grew up in rural Arkansas and saw the need to offer rural American students special opportunities to break in to science careers. [ http://www.aspirnaut.org The Aspirnaut Initiative ] Mail to Dr. Julie Hudson, Program Director, Vanderbilt University, 1161 21st Ave. S., D-3300 MCN, Nashville TN 37232-2104

For computer science education

Secondary school learning projects

Columbus School for Girls Service Learning Project

Updated July 2013

Columbus School for Girls (CSG), an independent, all-girls school in central Ohio is engaged in an ongoing project in which high school girls learn about the XO computer, then deliver refurbished, donated computers to a developing community. Students are responsible for teaching the recipients how to use the computers as well as teach teachers how the computer can support learning. Additional work includes ongoing support via electronic communication, as well as curriculum development for the global community.

With our first course beginning in 2009, students take a year-long course to learn the content so that they are prepared for the delivery and teaching service trip each May. So far, over the course of four years, we have helped to delivered over 200 donated and refurbished XO laptops to students in St. John. Students teach computer science concepts through Etoys and Scratch. In May of 2012 we extended our teaching to include middle school students so that they could help maintain the laptops in the community. The overall experience is life-changing. CSG students learn programming skills as well as hardware and software troubleshooting and repair. More importantly, they connect with children in a community they wouldn't normally visit, and pass on those valuable computer science skills for their future. You can read about our adventures at the student-created blog: csgolpc2013.weebly.com

Please consider donating your laptop to this worthy project. This ongoing project also engages non-traveling students in real work to benefit under-served students globally. Donations are being accepted for the 2014 service trip. We will gladly accept any computer, even a broken one, which will provide valuable experience with hardware repairs! Your donation will also be used throughout the school year by Columbus School for Girls elementary school students.

Not only will you be able to donate your laptop to a child in a developing community, but you will also give high school girls a meaningful experience in computer science – a field that is sorely lacking in women. Your donation gives twice! We will also send you an official thank-you note for your tax records.

College learning projects

please add your college learning project here to be the recipient of donated laptops directly from donors!

Other suggestions for donating to a child in need

You may want to consider donating your XO laptop to a homeless shelter or halfway home in your own community! There are usually children at these types of housing, especially housing for battered women, who could use the educational time away from their family affairs. Do a google search for local groups that are of interest to you!